I've been running through the days lately—one blurs into the next and suddenly, it's almost August.

It's almost August and it's sort of amazing how much things can change within a year. I remember thinking this back in December — did a mental comparison of the way things had changed so much — not so much from the year before, but the year before that. But the difference then was mostly negative. Now, not so much.

When I take the time to think about it, I suppose things are basically all the same. I mean, most of the really bad things that were happening a year ago were permanent sorts of things and none of them went away (or came back, as the case might be). But I guess now, having had a year to sort through things, they don't seem so bad.

Last year, I was counting off the days until I returned to school, taking secret delight in having to return to campus extra early. I reason I was one of the first people to move into campus. I'd been there almost a week by the time the minivans and SUV's from Long Island and New Jersey flooded Spruce Street as parents moved their freshmen into the Quad. I watched them leave in May, waited over a week, then left myself, taking not-so-secret dread in having to return home for the summer.

I tried to explain to someone why I was so afraid of home and more intangibly, the summer as a time of year itself, but I couldn't really. I know not all of the major events I categorize in the "bad things" column happened in the summer, but all of them seemed to have major tie-ins there. Somehow. And I was somehow afraid of that again.

Except now it's almost August and nothing bad has happened. Yet. I am not going to knock on wood about that, even if I should.

Anyway, time has been going quickly. And I have a feeling I'm going to miss this summer when it's all over, but I also think that there's more good to come soon.

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